‘Dangerous.’ Copper wire theft up in Kentucky, knocking out phone, 911 service, lights
On Thanksgiving Day, thieves knocked down telecommunication wires in Letcher County to steal the copper in them.
It happened again in Perry County about 3 a.m. the next day.
And again in Clay County the weekend after Thanksgiving, according to telephone and internet provider Kinetic, whose lines were damaged in all three cases.
In fact, copper thieves have stolen sections of Kinetic lines in southeastern Kentucky more than 70 times by this year by mid-December, according to the company, which has its field operations headquarters in Lexington, covering 18 states.
The thefts caused residential and business customers to lose service — including the ability to call 911 — while crews scrambled to make costly repairs.
“People can’t call for an ambulance. They can’t call for law enforcement,” said Perry County Sheriff Joe Engle. “It really puts a lot of people in danger.”
‘They’ll cut anything’
Barry Bishop, senior vice president of field operations for Kinetic, said the company has seen a significant increase in copper theft in southeastern Kentucky the past couple of years.
Bishop said the crime seems to rise in response to the price of copper. Thieves typically burn the coating off the wire and sell it at a scrap metal business.
People climb utility poles to cut wires, but thieves hit Kinetic with new tactics at Thanksgiving, cutting trees onto lines to knock them down near Jenkins, in Letcher County, and using a chainsaw to cut down utility poles in Clay County and steal 1,000 feet of copper line, according to the company.
Thieves sometimes knock out other services along with phone and internet service because utility poles typically carry fiber-optic and electric lines as well.
“They’ll cut anything down that they see, not even knowing what it is,” Bishop said.
Kinetic said some thieves sell the stolen copper at small recycling businesses in Tennessee, though police said they believe some places in Kentucky buy stolen wire as well.
“If somebody didn’t take it, there’d be no purpose for them to steal it,” said Clifton Jones, chief deputy for the Clay County Sheriff’s Department.
It can take hours or even days to restore service if thieves cut lines in remote places or steep terrain, and can cost thousands of dollars to repair damage that might net the thieves $100 or less.
Jones said in a criminal complaint in April that when people cut Windstream lines in a rural area of the county, it did $30,000 worth of damage to Kinetic’s system.
Jones said when he found two of the men burning the coating off the wire, they fled.
A grand jury indicted Michael Dezarn, 64; his son Jeremy Dezarn, 31; and Fabian Wilson, 42, on charges of theft, complicity to commit theft and tampering with evidence. The charges are pending.
Police believe drugs involved
Police said they believe drug problems are a key factor in many of the thefts.
“They’re just trying to get’em some money to go get’em some dope,” said Kenny Raleigh, police chief in the Harlan County city of Cumberland.
Kinetic isn’t the only company that has had problems with copper theft, nor is the problem limited to southeastern Kentucky.
In October, officials in Louisville announced the formation of a task force to tackle the problem after reports of thefts of copper wire and other metals went up significantly, according to officials.
Louisville police had responded to 328 reports of metal theft through August, and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet estimated it had spent more than $1 million repairing highway lighting damaged by wire thieves.
Officials said Louisville Gas & Electric and AT&T had also seen “significant impacts” to infrastructure because of thefts.
“From street and highway light outages to telecommunications infrastructure damage, these copper wire thieves have created major disruptions to critical infrastructure that we rely on every day,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said.
The task force announced a $15,000 reward for information that leads to a criminal conviction of wire thieves, with the money put up by AT&T and the Transportation Cabinet.
AT&T said in a statement to the Herald-Leader the company had seen an increase in copper thefts in Kentucky in recent years.
Copper is in demand for use in wiring, electric vehicles, wind turbines and other products, and that has driven up the value, the company said.
East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which is based in Winchester and supplies electricity to more than 1 million Kentucky residents through member co-ops, has seen a “slight uptick” in thefts, said Nick Comer, spokesman for the utility.
‘Very, very dangerous’
An incident at an East Kentucky Power substation in McCreary County in July 2011 showed the dangers of trying to steal copper.
Police said two men had stolen wire at a Kentucky Utilities station, but when they walked to a nearby East Kentucky Power station and pulled a wire from the ground, one 22-year-old man was electrocuted and died.
The other man fled, but police found him later because of a tip and recovered stolen wire and bolt cutters, police said at the time.
Telephone lines that thieves cut to get copper don’t carry an electrical charge, but they are often near other energized lines on the same poles.
“It can be very, very dangerous,” Bishop said.
Telecommunication companies and utilities around the U.S. have reported plenty of copper thefts.
In July, for instance, the New York Times reported that thefts of copper and other metal were up nationwide, with the story noting that the equivalent of 184 miles of electrical wire had gone missing from streetlights in the Las Vegas area over the past two years.
Media outlets in St. Paul, Minn., reported a man and his dog were hit by a truck and killed last Christmas Eve while crossing a street there that was dark because someone had stolen copper wire from streetlights.
“It’s all over the country,” Bishop said.
Bishop said Kinetic uses a variety of methods to try to combat copper theft, including night-vision cameras, GPS trackers on lines and rewards, and has set up an internal team that includes former police and members of the military to try to push back against thefts.
But Bishop said it would help to have federal authorities involved in investigating copper theft. Thieves often hit lines in rural areas where local police have limited resources.
And when thieves steal copper in Kentucky and sell it out of state, it makes prosecution difficult for local authorities, he said.
Stiffer penalties also would help, and recycling businesses must follow the law and report suspicious sales to police, Bishop said.
Providers said there also is a role for the public in trying to reduce copper theft by calling police if they see someone cutting lines.
“Without stronger deterrents in place, thefts may continue to escalate, straining valuable resources,” Bishop said.
▪ Kinetic offers a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people involved in copper thefts on its lines. Anyone with information can call local police or Kinetic at 1-855-268-2211, Option 1.
